1966 chevy van leafspring help

hey im bran new to vintage vans, i got a beautiful 1966 chevy van panal. pics will be coming. she was a parts van with a frozen vin. no insurence no temps, i have to V. I. it befor i can even enjoy it.
anyway so i went to work on the front end. i replaced the king pins,shox,end links,steering drag link,tie rod ends and wile i was doing the leaf spring bushings i noticed that one of the front eyes was larger then all the rest. working outside and in a rush i didnt notice it taking it out. i really want to confirm if it went on the front right?
can anyone tell me were the large eye on the front leafsprings of the first gen chevy van goes? really would make my mounth.
thanks everyone.

I'm pretty sure it goes on the right front, see what the old pros say here..
Welcome to the site.

Howdy, Not sure on the spring thing, but Welcome to the site. Some one here will have the answer for you. Is that a current picture of your Girl? She is a beauty. Enjoy

thanks for the welcome. these are the latest pic of my baby.
i have already replaced everything on my front end. all my bushings, steering drag link, tie rods, every fit great except the sway bar bushing needed to be trimmed a bit. i even had the springs re-arched to factory spec. when i dropped her on the wheels i noticed a inch or so lean to the pass side. this is why i question myself on the big leaf spring eye being in the ft rt? or not.
she has a lot of rust and ill keep good pics going through out this project.
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Welcome to Vintage Vans!!! Good looking van!!! Hope ya get it on the road soon man.

this is what my front axle looked like when i took it out of my '66 chevy van. you can see the pass side front spring eye is larger than the other side. i just thought it wasn't the original spring. there were other differences from side to side. i assummed it had been in an accident at some time.
wildbillinva

I can't confirm it , but I've taken it to be a "66" thing.I have seen it before myself and have heard it mentioned, I have yet to drop the front springs on my 66, but I think they have already been replaced once so not sure if they would be stock anyway. Still can't figure out why they needed to do that...

also remembered that the pass side spring was about 3/4" longer than the drivers side. it was the same distance from the eye to the axle location pin, but from the pin to the shackel end was different.
wildbillinva

66chevyvan,
We have discussed the lean issue many times before with many possibilities for why they lean. I have a 65 and 66. they both have that 1" lean. Even after replacing the springs with brand new ones. I even had the 66 springs made with an extra leaf and 1" extra arch. The van sits much higher but still has the slight lean.....

I did go out and measure the distance from the ground to the front and rear hanger bolts once on the 66 after the new springs were installed and found they were the same height from the ground indicating it was not a spring issue but a chassis issue. I never got around to measuring the hanger distance from the frame but that just sound a little to weird to me.

Just another one of the mysteries I guess.....

Dan

no it never had a lean to the rt before. ill check the amount of leafs on each spring, ft axle has been bumped once or twice but its not bent. camber is ok i haven't checked it yet, same with the tow.
i didnt know that the rt spring was longer from the pin to shackle thats good to know.
i read some posts about the lean issue, im going to do some measuring and see if i can figure it out. driving me nutz.
thanks everyone youve been really helpful. seems like i put it in the right spot after all.

of course the pins arnt in the center. sorry i dont know what i was thinking. i knew that.

Just to throw in.

I had my front springs re arcked , when I picked them up I did not notice if one had a bigger bushing then the other but I did notice the Dum A who arcked then did not do them both the same. As I suspected after installing them my van is about an inch higher on the driver side.

M1D

both my springs are 26 inches from the pin to the front bolt. the drivers spring from the pin the the rear shackle is 22 inches but the pass is 22 3/4
it always could be a bad spring guy. i wouldnt rule it out.
seems a bunch of the first gens have the pass lean.
the guy i bought my van off has a restored 66 with lowering springs and no lean...

"if you jack the rear wheels off the ground, does it still lean?"

Smart thinking Don!

m1dadio, If your on the throttle hard all the time does it lean then? BILL hehehe

i dont want to swap the springs now that i know for sure that the bigger eye should be on the pass side. i will jack the rear up and check if it is still leaning but the vans in the air right now...
my van is not drivable at the moment so i cant check the throttle theory..

I too have heard theories on the lean. Might be because the doghouse and engine are off center. Might not lean when loaded. However, these old vehicles almost always have an assortment of parts thrown in over the years and even at the factory they weren't too worried about symetry. Not unusual for even the fancy cars to have more chrome on one side or the other. Would bet that big eyed spring is out of something else. I'm a little older than my van and I lean more--hence I just don't care. Enjoy!

Hey Bill can you see it leaning?
https://s119.photobucket.com/albums/o122/m1dadio/?action=view¤t=DSCN1423.mp4

M1D I love this vidio!

My 65 van has the same size front leaf springs on both sides.

The whole reason they offset the Engine was to compensate for the drivers wieght to make the van be level when driven as it had been originally intended that there would only be a driver in the van. Its posible that when they went to sportvans and a wider acceptance of a passenger side seat they realized the passanger side needed A slightly heavier spring????

Hey Don, That picture you put up with all the bushings, is that for a 1st or 2nd gen?
I need to replace the front eye bushings of my 1st gen rear springs and I am looking towards those aftermarket bushings but cant seem to find the right combo on th "Energysuspention" site. Do you have a part number for them?

That HB 930 # comes up as a good number on the NAPA site

Thank you
M1D

M1D,I see no leaning in the video so the answer to any leaning problems is more throttle ! Bill